Maximum Ride Age Swap
by BasementKat
Summary: What if Max was the youngest and Angel was the oldest? Gazzy, Nudge, Iggy and Fang's ages get messed up too because why not?
1. Chapter 1

Angel sat up, heart pounding widely in her rib cage. It was the same, terrible dream every night and she greedily sucked in a few large gasps of air before she was able to calm down. Her hands were curled in the sweaty sheets and she felt something warm pressed against her side.

It was Max, of course. They little girl had been climbing into Angel's bed at night for a few weeks now and stubbornly refused to say why. Angel suspected that Max was having bad dreams of her own. Sometimes she woke up to the six-year-old's thrashing and cries for help. In these instances Angel would do her best to calm Max down, stroking her tangled brown hair and hugging her close.

Angel was only grateful that her own nightmares were quiet and didn't wake Max up. She didn't want to frighten the little girl any more than she needed too.

The fourteen-year-old yawned and squinted at the large bay window across the room. It overlooked the Colorado mountains, creating a stunning view. The sun had just barely started to crest over the peak putting the time somewhere around 7:30 a.m. Angel deemed this an acceptable time to get up (she was a morning person) and started to gently shake Max's shoulder. "Come on sweetie, time to get up."

"Nooooooooooo!" Was Max's response as she buried deeper into Angel's duvet.

"Max."

"Noooooooo."

"Maaaax."

"NO!"

"If you don't get up, I'm gonna tickle you." Angel threatened and watched as Max mulled it over. The girl _hated_ being tickled.

"Fine." Muttered Max, who finally sat up and yawed, showing off her mouth in all its gap-toothed glory. Angel subsequently got a whiff of Max's breath and coughed, screwing up her nose. Kids had the _worst_ morning breath.

"I'm hungry." Max announced, as she watched Angel pad across the floor to her closet.

"Brush your teeth and I'll make you something to eat." Angel said, pulling out her favorite sweatpants and T-shirt. The pants were purple and fluffy and the shirt was white and had the word 'angel' scrawled on it in shiny pink letters.

By the time she was finished getting dressed, Max had vacated the room. Angel followed suit, stepping out into the hallway. The air inside was warm and humid and Angel guessed that Iggy and left his window open again.

Angel made her way to the kitchen and found her twin Gazzy at the table, fiddling with a couple of wires.

"Don't blow anything up." She warned as Gazzy shot her a blinding grin.

"What do you take me for? An amateur?"

"You set the TV on fire last week." Angel reminded him.

"That was Iggy!" Gazzy protested, rolling his eyes.

"Sure sure, blame the blind kid." A third voice entered the argument as Iggy shuffled into the room, drunk with sleep.

"Iggyy!" Gazzy exclaimed. "I'm sorry, come hold this wire for me?"

"No, Iggy!" Max giggled, joining the threesome in the kitchen. "Make me pancakes."

"Yeah, Ig." Angel laughed. "You heard the boss, go make her pancakes."

"No." Iggy muttered, flopping onto the couch, aim impeccable as always. Max pouted and stalked over to the couch, scrambling up onto Iggy's chest.

"Pleaaaaaase?" The little girl placed her hands on Iggy's cheeks and squeezed. "Please Iggy?" And because no one could resist Max's little girl charm, Iggy sighed and agreed to make pancakes if someone else could hand him things. Max was recruited for that job and Angel told Gazzy to set the table.

"I'm going to go get Nudge and Fang up." She said watching as the kitchen's members bustled into action.

Angel knocked on Nudge's door first, calling to her in an annoying sing songy voice. "Nudddgieee! Time to get up!" From beyond the door Angel heard a groan and a muffled thump as something soft hit the door.

Now for Fang. Max and Fang shared a larger room at the end of the hall. Angel was surprised to find the door propped open (as both little kids preferred it closed) and she peaked in curiously.

Fang's bed was on the left side of the room, covers bunched in a heap on the floor. "Fang?" Angel called quietly and jumped at the boy's resounding "Yes?"

Somehow Fang managed to sneak up behind Angel. He had obviously been up for awhile as he was already dressed for the day, fluffy dark hair brushed behind his ears. She let out a shaky breath. "Quit sneaking up on me Fang." The eight year olds blending ability made Angel nervous, although she was loath to admit it.

Fang frowned, dark eyes narrowing into a wary squint. "Max likes it when I sneak up on her."

"I'm not Max." Angel pointed out. Fang shrugged and turned on his head, slinking towards the kitchen.

Most of the time Angel didn't really know what to think about Fang. She loved him, obviously, but he was definitely an odd kid (even for someone like them).

Angel followed Fang back to the kitchen, intercepting Nudge who was just emerging from her room. She was dressed stylishly like always, and despite her endless complaints about 'how tired she was' and that 'this was way to early a time to get up', she looked bright and eager.

In the kitchen, the others had already started eating and Max had pancake batter all over her face. Angle dug in, savoring the delicious taste of the pancakes. Iggy may be blind but for some reason he was an amazing cook and Angel was eternally grateful.

"After we eat can we go exploring?" Max asked, with a mouth full of half chewed food.

"Of course sweetie we'll all go." Angel responded, winning a golden smile from the little girl.

Max's favorite thing in the whole wide world (or so she claimed) was exploring. She loved the woods that backed the house and would play there for hours, normally with Fang by her side. Last summer the two had discovered a strawberry patch that instantly became a huge source of food for all of them.

After Jeb had disappeared, she and Gazzy had started ordering food online. But every once in awhile it was nice to get something fresh like the strawberries. (Or 'strawbebbies' as Max liked to call them)

Angel carefully picked her way through the heavy woods, letting her pure white wings bask in the pre-summer sunlight. The rest of the kids seemed just as content as she was, and Max, Fang and Nudge had even decided to race. Iggy chattered happily to Gazzy (probably about something destructive) and Angel let herself watch, just glad that the kids were happy.

"They're not ripe yet!" Max called from somewhere far away, disappointment clear in her young voice.

Angel guessed that she was at the pre-mentioned strawberry patch and called back. "They will be in about a month or two." Angel knew that the berries usually ripened during the middle of the summer as opposed to the beginning.

She caught up to Max, Fang and Nudge at the patch, Gazzy and Ig right behind her.

"Can we go to burrow?" Max asked, turning her big brown eyes on Angel. "Please?"

Angel shrugged. "Why not?" It was a bit of a walk to Max's burrow, but it was a gorgeous day and the kid's needed the walk. As they walked Max went on and on about the cool things she and Fang had added to the fort and how she thought that they should maybe make a tree house addition and could she and Fang have a sleepover out here tonight, please?

"I don't think so." Angel responded to Max's last question.

"Whyyyy notttt?" Max wined as Fang shot Angel a frown.

"It get cold at night. Plus if something goes wrong you're to far away from the house."

Max sulked for awhile but cheered up once they got to her fort. The burrow was definitely a cool find. There was a small cave that opened up at the foot of a large tree. A gurgling brook wound itself around the cave and the whole thing was very relaxing.

Max and Fang spread their wings and flew up to the top of the tree, heads bowed together as they talked. Gazzy took out his apparatus with the wires and he and Iggy instantly got to work. Nudge said she was going to walk around a bit more and Angel herself started to read a book that she had brought from the house.

Angel guessed that she had been reading for about twenty minutes when Max shouted down from her perch.

"Angel! There's choppers in the sky!"

"What?" Angel knew that planes normally never flew down this low.

"I can hear them!" Iggy exclaimed head cocked upwards. "There getting closer!"

"Max, Fang! Get down!" Angel yelled to the kids. In a floosh of flapping wings they both landed in front of the older girl.

"What's going on?!" Max asked worriedly as the roaring sound got louder and louder.

"I don't know." Angel admitted and then Max let out an earsplitting scream. The next thing the blonde girl knew was that they were under attack and she had to fight.

Her fist shot out and connected with a… muzzle? Her eyes widened as she instantly recognized the assailants, they were from the School! Her stand in father Jeb Batchelder had taught them to fight, to react, but Angel's muscles locked and she couldn't do anything but stare at the mess around her.

The attackers where what the kids had nicknamed 'Erasers'; half wolf-half man creatures from the school. They were guards and why they were here, Angel had no idea! Jeb had promised that they were safe at home!

Gazzy and Iggy were working together, clapping their hands over the wolf-men's ears. An Eraser had Max in a headlock and Nudge came up from behind and clubbed it over the head with her fists. Fang was like a bullet, shooting from Eraser to Eraser leaving destruction and groaning men in his path.

"Hey freaky!" She heard Max call as the little girl gave it a good roundhouse kick. Angel cheered silently elbowing another Eraser in its gut. He fell back hacking up blood and retreated. Angel stepped forward as an Eraser came up behind her and swung a heavy fist into her head. Angel's vision dimmed and seeing spots she used the last weapon at her disposal; mind control.

The younger kids didn't know Angel could do this, and up until recently Angel didn't know she could do it either. One particularly stormy and cold night she was trying to get Max in bed. The little girl, of course, refused, and stuck out her tongue at Angel, causing the already annoyed elder girl to snap. In her head she commanded Max to go to bed, and it… it worked. Max's eyes took on a hazy, distant sheen and she smiled and nodded. "Okay, I'll sleep now." She climbed into Angel's bed and promptly fell asleep.

Angel used this tactic now, taking on Eraser after Eraser. Using mind control was very effective and worked 100% of the time, but was just tiring as physical fighting to implement.

Just then, as if from nowhere, a heavy Eraser landed awkwardly on Angel's back, knocking the wind out of her. Angel struggled but went limp when she heard that horrible piercing shriek. At first she thought that the cry belonged to Max, but no, it was Fang. Angel watched as the Eraser holding him jammed his clawed hand against Fang's shoulder, effectively popping it out of its socket. Fang's dark eyes rolled up into his head and out for the count, he slumped against the Eraser as it chucked in glee.

Horrified, she succumbed to her headache and then everything went dark and quiet and Angel drowned in it.


	2. Chapter 2

The dark haired boy awoke to a humming sound, and a rhythmic rocking sensation that made his stomach churn. His cheek was pushed up against the cool surface of a metal floor, and it proved a nice contrast to the hot, searing jolts of pain shooting up and down his thin body. It was hard to distinguish where the pain was coming from, because there just seemed to be so much of it.

Experimenting, Fang wiggled the fingers on his left hand. Deeming them usable he snaked them up so that his hand was lying opposite to the side of his face that was pressed against the floor.

His eyes widened when he felt that his face was wet and sticky. Was it blood? Yes there was some of that, but although unschooled the boy was smart enough to know that blood didn't normally leak out of a persons eyes. No, what came dripping down, creating a puddle that pooled on the floor, were tears.

Fang hadn't cried since he could remember.

"Hey!" Fang cringed at the loud, jeering voice of his captor. "The freaks are following us."

From his crumpled position on the floor Fang couldn't see out of the choppers window, but knew that if he could he would see the brown and white speckled wings of Max.

Max… She would be the only one stupid enough to go after him. She was rash, bold, reckless, and

impulsive. But under her tough façade was a caring girl who would rather go to hell, then to see her friends hurt.

Fang pulled his knees up closer to his chest and fingered the rope necklace that Max had made him on his 'birthday' last year. A single tawny, Max feather hung of the end, now rough from months of Fang's slim fingers rubbing it over and over.

Max, please help me!

"FANG!" Max cried, small, bloody arm reaching out in a desperate attempt to grab the skids of the helicopter. Angel shot forward and looped her arms around Max's waist to keep the girl from flying to her death. Slim circular objects poked out from the helicopters windows and Angel had no doubt that they were guns. And although the kids were strong they were not bullet proof.

Max's sticky tears streamed down her cheeks as she thrashed in Angel's hold. "LET ME GO, LET ME GO! FANG!"

Angel's head throbbed and it pained her to do this to Max, but the girl was out of control.

Max stop struggling NOW, Fang will be fine.

Almost instantly Max's eyelids drooped and she sagged limply into Angel's body as the older girl began their spiraling descent.

"So what are we going to do?" Gazzy said about twenty minutes later as he gently pushed Angel's blonde hair away from her forehead and mopped up the blood, placing Band-Aids over her cuts and scrapes.

"I don't know." Angel replied tiredly, stroking Max's bloodied hair. The little girl was slumped in Angel's lap muttering Fang's name over and over under her breath. Nudge sat across from them, tending to Iggy's scratches because he couldn't see them himself.

"Where do you think they took Fang?" Iggy sighed, standing up and shaking out his pale wings. "The Erasers could have killed him if they wanted to, they want him alive."

Angel shuddered at the word 'kill' and sunk deeper into her chair. "We know where they took him." She muttered, "We know..." She couldn't say the name. It stuck in her throat and she coughed heavily into the crook of her arm, spitting out beads of blood.

"The school." Gazzy said for her, face pale and ashen. It pained him to talk about it too. It pained them all.

"Yeah." Angel agreed. "The bastards took him there." She saw the fear flicker on her family's faces and wished she could take it all away. Was it too much to ask to just let them be happy?!

Just then Max took in a hiccupy breath and wailed. "FANGGGGGGG!" Her primal sobs terrifying Angel who could do nothing more than watch in shock as the girl screamed out her pain.

"We'll get him back Maxie..." Angel stuttered. "I promise sweetie, we'll get him back."

Max swatted away Angel's comforting hands and hunched into herself, still screaming.

The kids all watched as eventually her shouts dialed down into quiet heaves.

Angel knew Max and Fang were close but maybe it went further than that. Maybe they were truly connected in a way that couldn't be described by mere words.

Nonetheless, Max was obviously in pain and Angel was upset that she couldn't help the poor girl.

"We have to go get him." She said, trying to put a little confidence into her voice. She had to be strong for the others.

"Yeah." Nudge sniffed, wiping away the tears that Max's outburst had caused her.

"Gaz, Nudge and I will go to California. Iggy will stay here and watch over Max." Angel decided, trying to ignore the way Iggy scowled at this statement.

"I wanna go..." Angel was surprised to hear Max's voice. The girl had fallen silent and Angel had assumed that she'd cried herself to sleep.

"Max, sweetie, it's not safe."

"I wanna go!" Max lifted her head off of Angel's chest and turned to look at the older girl. Her chocolate brown eyes were red and watery and her cheeks were stained with tear tracks. "It's my fault. I need to go too!"

"What do you mean 'your fault', Max? None of it's your fault." Angel was horrified. Why would Max think it was her fault?

A few new tears slid down the little girls face as she mumbled, " The Earsers tried to," hiccup "they tried to grab me, but" hiccup "Fang pushed me out of the way and," hiccup "and they got him instead!" This cause a whole new fresh set of tears as Max started sobbing again. "It's my fault they got Fang, my fault!"

"Hey Max." Gazzy said softly, taking the lead on this one.

"What?" She sniffed.

"We're a family right?"

"...yes?"

"And being a family means we help each other. Remember that movie we watched awhile ago? LILO and stitch? Remember what they said about family?"

"That nobody gets left behind or forgotten." The little girl recited, rubbing her eyes.

"That's right. It wasn't your fault that Fang got taken. He was helping you because you're his friend. And we're going to find him, you don't have to worry about that. Fang will be fine because we're a family and we won't let him get hurt. Okay?"

"Okay." Murmured Max. She settled back on Angel's chest and Angel silently sent Gazzy a huge thank you! She wouldn't have known what to do. Now that Max was slightly mollified, the kids quickly finished bandaging their wounds.

Gazzy said he wanted to get going as soon as possible, but Nudge argued against it. She said that they needed to rest, and Angel agreed. They would be no help to Fang bone-tired.

She and Iggy whipped up a quick impromptu dinner of cereal and pop tarts and then she sent everyone to bed.

Max crawled up into Fang's sheets and Angel didn't have the heart to make her move. Nudge ended up in Angel's bed and she could hear Ig and Gaz's hushed conversation from next door. They all needed the comfort that night and Angel fell asleep to the sound of Nudges steady breathing.

She woke up to screaming.

"Angel! Angel, Max is gone!"


End file.
